(Bloomberg) -- Kosovo rejected an idea floated by Serbia of a partition along ethnic lines as part of an effort to normalize relations between the two nations striving to join the European Union.
The idea, raised by Serb President Aleksandar Vucic and explored by some western diplomats in the Balkans, has run into fierce opposition in Kosovo and in Serbia, where opposition forces and the influential Serbian Orthodox Church rejected the notion.
Experts and former diplomats also warned that rethinking borders in the Balkans would pose a risk to the stability in a region still struggling to come to terms with the wars of the 1990s, which tore apart Yugoslavia in Europe's deadliest post-World War II conflict.
“There is no force that can make us discuss the partition of Kosovo,” President Hashim Thaci told reporters in Pristina on Tuesday, Beta newswire reported.
He wants to conclude EU-mediated talks with Serbia, which began in 2013, with mutual recognition that would also open the way for Kosovo to join the United Nations, Beta reported. Serbia, backed by Russia and China, has vowed to never recognize Kosovo which declared independence in 2008.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jasmina Kuzmanovic in Zagreb at jkuzmanovic@bloomberg.net;Misha Savic in Belgrade at msavic2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Scott Rose at rrose10@bloomberg.net, Andrea Dudik, Michael Winfrey
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